I am an Assistant Professor of History at Texas State University. My research is concerned with histories of displacement, diaspora, & refusal, & what these have to do with the Río Grande.

My current book project focuses on disputed land known as El Chamizal in the El Paso-Cd. Juárez borderlands. In 1964, the landmark Chamizal Treaty between the U.S. & Mexico returned this disputed land—630 acres in El Paso, Texas—to Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua. The Chamizal Treaty remains the first and only time the U.S. has ever given territory back to Mexico. In my work, my attention rests on those who are often removed from this conflict’s official record—those deemed irrelevant or inconvenient to the telling of this story. This means I emphasize the stories of El Chamizal’s marginalized stakeholders (Mexicanos, Mexican-Americans, & Native communities), their place-making practices & experiences of dislocation, as well as their distinct land-based pedagogies of refusal.

The meandering Río Grande, which delineates the U.S.-Mexico border in this region & whose shifts caused the Chamizal Dispute, guides my analytical approach & research questions. This means I engage this river for its teachings: as a land with intellect & its own worldview; as a water that instructs; & as a terrain of struggle from which we have much to learn about what is possible for this world.

I hold a PhD in Chicana/o Studies from UCLA as well as certificates in American Indian Studies (UCLA), Writing Pedagogy with an emphasis on Language Learners (UCLA), and Digital Public Humanities (George Mason University).